The chemical compound known as "methylene blue" is a potential candidate for treating Alzheimer's, as it prevents the harmful clumping of so-called tau proteins typically associated with this disease. However, ...

When proteins get "out of shape", the consequences can be fatal. They lose their function and in some cases form insoluble, toxic clumps that damage other cells and can cause severe diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. ...

(Phys.org)—ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory has completed the most detailed study ever of the fierce wind from a giant star, showing for the first time that it is not a uniform breeze but is fragmented ...

The universe abounds with dark matter. Nobody knows what it consists of. University of Oslo physicists have now launched a very hard mathematical explanation that could solve the mystery once and for all.

(Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers, led by academics from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has found the largest known structure in the universe. The large quasar group (LQG) is ...

Recently I posted an image of two of Saturn's shepherd moons, Pandora and Prometheus, captured by Cassini in a face-off across the spindly F ring. Now here's a much wider-angle view of the gas giant's rings, ...

Claims that forest leaves rich in nitrogen may aid in reflecting infrared radiation—helping cool the atmosphere—have been challenged by new research that shows that the structure of tree canopies is a more important factor ...

(Phys.org)—French researchers Sébastien Charnoz and Aurélien Crida have proposed in a paper published in the journal Science that moons that orbit some of the planets in our solar system came about due to ...

Examining battery materials on the nano-scale reveals how nickel forms a physical barrier that appears to impede the shuttling of lithium ions in the battery's electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge ...

(Phys.org)—Researchers from North Carolina State University have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) – a semiconductor material – that have extremely thin petals with an enormous ...

One can often begin to understand a protein's function by identifying its accomplices in the cell. Accordingly, scientists have developed diverse biochemical assays that essentially allow them to go 'fishing' ...

Most proteins have a single 'correct' way to fold; typically, improperly folded proteins are promptly eliminated by cells. However, certain misfolded proteins have a tendency to aggregate in dense fibrous ...

(Phys.org)—For more than 50 years, language scientists have assumed that sentence structure is fundamentally hierarchical, made up of small parts in turn made of smaller parts, like Russian nesting dolls.